© 2009 Bob Hackett and Peter Cundall
1944:
Osaka. Laid down at Fujinagata Shipbuilding.
15 April 1945:
Launched and numbered CD-58.
15 August 1945:
Japan accepts the Allies “Potsdam Declaration” (of unconditional surrender) and hostilities cease.
8 April 1946:
Completed for the Allied Repatriation Service. [1]
9 April 1946:
Enters drydock at Sakai for repairs.
23 April 1946:
Repairs are completed.
17 May 1946:
Departs Hakata on her first repatriation voyage.
20 May 1946:
Arrives at Korojima near Tsientsin. Embarks troops and passengers to be repatriated and departs later that day.
23 May 1946:
Arrives at Hakata. Disembarks troops and passengers.
31 May 1946:
Departs Hakata.
3 June 1946:
Arrives at Korojima. Embarks troops and passengers to be repatriated.
4 June 1946:
Departs Korojima.
7 June 1946:
Arrives at Hakata. Disembarks troops and passengers.
14 June 1946:
Departs Hakata.
17 June 1946:
Arrives at Korojima. Embarks troops and passengers to be repatriated and departs later that same day.
20 June 1946:
Arrives at Hakata. Disembarks troops and passengers.
31 July 1947:
Ceded to the United States as a war reparation.
30 November 1948:
Completes scrapping.
Authors’ Notes
]1] Allied occupation forces were responsible for the return of six million Japanese military personnel and civilians from Japan's defunct far-flung Empire. In addition, there were over a million Korean and about 40,000
Chinese prisoners and conscript laborers and approximately 7,000 Formosans and
15,000 Ryukyu Islanders to be repatriated.
Some Allied and many former IJN warships, from aircraft carriers to
kaibokan, were used to facilitate the enormous repatriation effort. Japanese
vessels and crews were used to the fullest extent possible to conserve Allied
manpower and accelerate demobilization. Each ex-IJN ship first had to be
demilitarized; guns removed or, in the case of large warships, barrels severed,
ammunition landed, and radar and catapults removed, if fitted. Repatriation of
the Chinese on Japanese ships began early in October from Hakata, but U.S. guard
detachments had to be placed on many ships to prevent disorder because the
Japanese crews could not control the returnees.
Japanese-run repatriation centers were established at Kagoshima, Hario
near Sasebo, and Hakata near Fukuoka. Other reception centers were established
and operated at Maizuru, Shimonoseki, Sasebo, Senzaki, Kure, Uraga, Yokohama,
Moji and Hakodate. Allied line and medical personnel supervised the centers.
Incoming Japanese were sprayed with DDT, examined and inoculated for typhus and
smallpox, provided with food, and transported to his final destination in Japan.
-Bob Hackett and Peter Cundall
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